Spiteful Healer-Chapter 64: Campfire

“So what happened next?” Amlie asked excitedly. She sat around a campfire just off the paved road of Rene under the setting sun looking intensely at Darkshot as he told the story of their adventures in the dungeon. With them in a circle sat Lina, Aegis, Rakkan, Pyri, Tinsel, Luca and Farlion, and Luca shared the same expression as Amlie, hanging on Darkshot’s every word. Beside Pyri was a stack of musty old tomes that Rakkan had collected for her, and in her hands she held one open, reading it. Across from her Rakkan did the same with a separate set of tomes beside him.

“I told them, ‘You must flee. I’ll hold it off. Don’t worry about me.’” Darkshot told the story with a dramatic deep voice.

“No you didn’t, you screamed like a girl and grapple-shot out of there faster than anyone else.” Aegis interrupted him, causing Luca and Amlie to chuckle.

“Whatever, the point is, we all got out of there safely.” Darkshot waved him off.

“Should we be worried about something like that living underneath us?” Farlion asked Aegis with a serious expression, but he turned to Lina and Rakkan for an answer.

“Those types of bosses usually don’t leave their lair, so as long as no one does anything to provoke it, we should be fine.” Lina explained to them.

“The only way to make sure everyone’s really safe though is to get rid of it.” Rakkan replied while staring Aegis in the eyes, and Aegis nodded in agreement.

“We’ll want our intermediate classes for that.” He leaned back and looked over the group. “You guys all know what you plan to do for your intermediate class quests?” Aegis asked.

“Yup.” Lina smiled.

“Yeah.” Rakkan nodded.

“I think so.” Pyri shrugged.

“I’m going ranger.” Darkshot replied.

“From what I understand, the intermediate class quests are all difficult, and most of them need to be completed alone. So I’ll make sure everyone has the best equipment I can make before we all set out.” Aegis replied and he got a few nods.

“It’s not only that.” Lina added as all eyes turned to her. “While you are a beginner, the game assists you a lot with your skills. Even if you have no idea how to use a dagger,” She said as she drew out her dagger and spun it around using fancy finger movements. “The game skill will help you more and more based on how high level it is.” Lina sheathed her dagger again. “However during most of the intermediate quests the game will remove a lot of that skill assistance. A lot of players get stuck at level 30 for a long time because of this.”

“So you’re saying I’ll need to actually learn how to use a bow and arrow?” Darkshot asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Not completely- the skill isn’t completely gone, but the better you are at it without the games help, the easier it is. It’s why people who are chefs in the real world have no problem passing the intermediate cooking quest, but people who are bad at cooking in the real world get stuck on it, or sometimes never pass it at all.” Lina continued.

“Yeah. It’s a bit different for magic classes like wizards and priests, y-” Rakkan started as he looked at Pyri, but she put her index finger up.

“Ta-ta-ta… don’t give me any spoilers. Half the fun is figuring it out by myself.” Pyri smiled at Rakkan.

“Are you sure? For Magic its re-”

“Pssssht!” She shushed him. “If I’m not good enough to figure it out by myself, do I really deserve to be an intermediate wizard?” Pyri asked.

“Yeah, my mom- I mean Pyri is right. Thanks for the information, but we’ll figure it out, right Darkshot?” Aegis said.

“Huh? Yeah… sure… maybe I should’ve picked an easier class.” He mumbled to himself as he looked at his longbow and plucked the drawstring absentmindedly.

“So, the first step for crafting our equipment will be the forge. Everyone should take a rest for today. I’m going to be heading back to Orm to smelt the first batch of Iron to build the forge with, and see if I can’t get someone I know in Orm to help us build it.” Aegis declared.

“Sounds good. Thanks for the meal and the great story.” Farlion smiled as he, Tinsel and Luca stood from the campfire. “We’ll get rest and prepare for work in the morning.”

“Goodnight.” Tinsel and Luca smiled, and the family of three headed back to their home. Once they were gone, Pyri stood up with the book in her hand and quickly added the other books to her inventory.

“I’m going to read a few of these to learn some more of these beginner wizard spells.” She mumbled while making her way towards her stables for some peace and quiet.

“My parents want me to go and eat with them. Be back later!” Lina waved to the others. Everyone waved as she logged out, leaving the four of them sitting at the campfire.

“It’s really impressive how fast Pyri caught up to everyone, even without any experience bonuses.” Amlie said as she watched Pyri wandering down the paved road, a Cinderbolt hovering over her left shoulder for light.

“She’s got the marriage experience bonus now.” Aegis shrugged.

“Really? Who’s she married to?” Amlie asked curiously.

“Darkshot, she married Darkshot.” Rakkan spoke quickly and anxiously.

“Oh, that’s nice. But what about Rakkan?” Amlie asked worriedly. “It’s a bit sad that you are left out, right? You’re the only one without the bonus.”

“He married Pyri too.” Aegis said grumpily.

“Oh.” Amlie replied as her face went blank. “That’s nice.” She said with no emotion, staring at the campfire for a moment. She then stood up like a robot and turned, stomping towards her house, but stopping after a few steps. She then spun around to face Rakkan angrily.

“You’re not allowed to sleep in my house anymore, by the way.”

“Huh? But Aegis assigned me to it…”

“Assign him a new house. You can live in it with Pyri and Darkshot.” She said angrily.

“I had to, for the bonus, otherwise I would’ve just fallen behind.”

“Yeah yeah, for the experience bonus, I’ve heard that one before.” Amlie snapped back at him before turning and continuing towards her house.

“W-” He was about to call out, but thought against it. Instead he quickly shoved all the books into his inventory and stood up. “I’ll go talk to her, she’s just joking around.” Rakkan said nervously to Darkshot and Aegis before running after Amlie. Darkshot and Aegis just exchanged looks as they leaned back.

“Ah, to be young.” Aegis said mockingly.

“Pfft, you’re one to talk.” Darkshot retorted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aegis replied.

“You and Lina.” Darkshot shrugged.

“What about me and Lina?” Aegis replied defensively, sitting up straight.

“Oh c’mon, you don’t have to play dumb with me.” Darkshot rolled his eyes.

“No seriously, what are you talking about?”

“Really? You’re telling me you don’t know she’s into you?” Darkshot raised his eyebrows at him.

“Nah, it’s not like that. We talked, she just likes playing the game with us. You guys are all trying to make it into something more, but it’s not.”

“Dude. She deleted a level 90 character to come play with you. Look how hard it was for us just to get level 30.” Darkshot said condescendingly to Aegis. Aegis had no response to this, his mind just processed what Darkshot said, and what Amlie had said at the Wildwood tree.

“That doesn’t make any sense though, why would she like me?” Aegis dismissed Darkshot with this line of thinking.

“Uh, duh, the same reason everyone else did in school? Even before all that Makaroth stuff. Pretty boy who exercises regularly with good grades. Well, you used to exercise regularly. We’ve been sitting in that cave for so long grinding, I’m pretty sure that’s been dropped from your daily routine.” Darkshot teased him.

“Y-yeah, I should probably get some exercise.” Aegis acknowledged. “Lina never talked to me outside the game though...”

“I w-w-w-w-wonder w-w-w-w-why.” Darkshot mocked Lina’s shyness with a forced stutter. “She’s shy.” He shrugged. It went silent for a moment as Aegis thought on it more, he’d been so focused on the game and progressing that he didn’t dig too deeply into what Lina’s real feelings were.

“Let’s say you’re right, what should I do? We’re just playing this game together. I don’t know much else about her…” Aegis shrugged.

“Well, do you like her?” Darkshot asked.

“I…” Aegis thought about it. “I guess. I mean, I like when she gets excited, usually talking about the game. She gets this look in her eyes where you just can’t look away, you have to listen. She’s smart and really nice, but sometimes a bit scary… I mean, in a good way scary, but I wouldn’t want to be on her bad side, you know? I don’t know.” Aegis sighed as he chucked a small twig into the campfire. “She’s reliable, it feels safer when she’s around… I’m sometimes worried I’m relying on her too much.” Aegis continued.

“Uh huh.” Darkshot replied sarcastically as he watched Aegis eyes gazing into the fire as he talked about her.

“Well, what should I do? I don’t know about this stuff.” Aegis sighed.

“I dunno, ask her out on a date and see how things go?” Darkshot suggested.

“Like in the real world?”

“She’d probably like it in this world better.” Darkshot shrugged.

“What if she says no, though?”

“Just play it off like you are asking her to do a quest or something, it’s foolproof.” Darkshot suggested.

“That’s risky… if you’re wrong, it’s just going to make it awkward and ruin the fun for her. I don’t want her to stop having fun in this game, it sounded like the last guys she played with were nasty.” Aegis replied.

“C’mon, trust me, when have I ever been wrong?”

“Like 9 out of 10 times you’re wrong.” Aegis replied.

“Ah shut it.” Darkshot whipped a twig at Aegis and the two chuckled.

“What about you, what’d your dad think about you planning on spending the summer playing with us?” Aegis asked.

“Well, he was really excited when I said I was playing with you all summer, at first. He told me I should use Makaroth’s popularity to promote his shop.” Darkshot said as he leaned back. “Then I told him we ditched our names because your dad’s a dick, and we’re going to try to make it on our own.”

“And now he’s pissed?”

“Nah, you know my dad. He said I should play more and work even harder to help you get on top. So, you know…”

“So I can promote the shop?”

“Exactly.” Darkshot gave a nod and they both chuckled. “I assume you still have a plan, right? To beat your old man?”

“You know?” Aegis asked hesitantly.

“I was watching your stream when you were going to Kordas with Lina, I pieced it together from the unmuted bits.” Darkshot shrugged. “So, we're going to the top?” Darkshot smirked.

“Yeah.”

“And you’ve got a plan?” Darkshot asked.

“Sort of… it’s more of an idea, a theory…” Aegis said with no confidence.

“Well, whatever it is, I hope it’s good, cause we’ve got a long way to go.” Darkshot motioned to his livestream viewership of 1. He then stood up and stretched out his arms with a big yawn. “I’m gonna crash for the night. See you in the morning.” Darkshot waved.

“Alright, Later.” Aegis waved as Darkshot disappeared from the gameworld. Aegis stood at the campfire a few moments longer, thinking about his plans and what Darkshot said, and was only interrupted by Pyri walking over.

“I’m hopping out to have a shower, and you oughta do the same. You’re starting to smell so bad I can smell it while we’re in the simulation.” Pyri smirked.

“Y-yeah, I’ll be out in a bit.” Aegis replied without reacting.

“Something wrong?” Pyri asked curiously

“No, nope, everythings fine.” Aegis shrugged.

“Ooookay.” Pyri faked a shrug back to mock him. “I’m hungry too, so get on that.” She waved and her character disappeared from the gameworld. Aegis let out a sigh and was about to begin logging out, but before he could, Lina re-appeared beside him.

“H-hi. I’m back. Is everyone else gone?” Lina asked while looking around curiously.

“Y-yeah.” Aegis had trouble looking her in the eyes. “Well, Rakkan and Amlie are over there.” Aegis pointed to Amlie’s house where the door was shut and Rakkan was talking at it, but not loud enough for them to hear.

“Will you be going to Kordas for your Cleric quest? B-b-because that’s where I am going, s-so if you w-w-w-want we can go together… after the equipment is all done…” Lina asked shyly.

“Yeah… But I’m going to stick around here a bit longer first. I’m planning to raise as many skills to 30 as I can.” Aegis replied.

“Oh… do you want me to help? I can stay and help you.” Lina suggested.

“Uhm…” Aegis hesitated until he caught a glimpse of her hopeful expression. “Yeah, sure. If you want, I mean it’s probably going to be boring.”

“I don’t mind.” Lina shrugged, both of them staring at the campfire as Lina took a seat across from Aegis.

“Ok, if you’re sure… what about your intermediate quest though, don’t you want to do it really fast?”

“It’s fine, I’ve done it once already so it’ll be easy.” She replied confidently.

“Heh, okay.” Aegis shrugged. “Thanks for helping out so much. I don’t know where I’d be right now if you weren’t here… I’ll try not to rely on you as much in the future.” Aegis replied as he looked down at his feet nervously.

“It’s okay, if you want to rely on me…” Her face went bright red as she too looked at her feet as if they were something mesmerizing that had to be observed. “I mean, it’s fun, playing together with you, a-and everyone.” She mumbled weakly. Aegis’ face went red at the thought that Amlie and Darkshot were right, but as he did, it went silent, and the longer the silence went on, the more uncomfortable Aegis felt.

“Well… What's your favorite meal?” Aegis asked awkwardly.

“Huh?” She looked up at him, confused for a second.

“You know, just asking, to know more stuff about you.” Aegis shrugged while avoiding looking in her direction.

“Oh.” She looked at him slightly confused. “I like cheese cake.” She said the first food that came to mind.

“That’s more like a dessert though, isn’t it?” Aegis replied.

“Dessert is still food.” Lina defended her answer.

“Not really, I mean like, real food?” Aegis asked.

“Uhm… I dunno.” Lina awkwardly looked away again while brushing her hair back, trying to think of an answer for him rather than actually think about a food she liked. Remembering that Aegis wanted to be a doctor, she quickly over-corrected from cheese cake. “I like apples.” She felt confident that this was the correct answer.

“That’s not a meal though, that’s just a fruit.” Aegis disapproved.

“Apple pie?” Lina tried to change her answer.

“That’s just another dessert.” Aegis chuckled. “And are you just guessing answers?”

“N-no…” She whispered back, before another idea jumped in her head. “Chicken noodle soup? It’s really healthy.”

“I asked for your favorite meal, not a healthy meal.” Aegis had to hold back laughing.

“W-whats your favorite?” Lina replied defensively.

“Mac n cheese.” Aegis answered proudly.

“Oh, me too, I like that.”

“You can’t just steal my answer.” Aegis groaned.

“I-I’m not! I really like it.” She insisted.

“I’m hungry, so you better have food done when I come out of the shower.” Jillain spoke to Aegis through the Simbox communicator.

“Okay, gimme a sec.” Aegis replied to her.

“My mom wants me to make food, so I’ll head off for a bit. See you tomorrow?” Aegis asked her and she nodded yes. “Good night!” Aegis waved with a smile before logging out, leaving Lina alone to stare at the campfire in silence for a moment. Eventually she let out an embarrassed groan and rolled back away from the campfire into the grass a few times until she bumped into the hoof of a grazing lagnok. It stopped grazing to hang its big snout over her head and stare at her.

“What? I really do like Mac n cheese.” She complained to the lagnok as it chewed the grass in its mouth and continued to stare. “Oh what do you know, big dumb goat.” She rolled her eyes at it.

“You can talk to animals?” Rakkan asked. Lina turned to see Rakkan now standing beside the campfire, watching her.

“No.” She said as she quickly stood up and brushed the grass off of her leather armor.

“They all logged out, huh?” Rakkan asked as he pulled out one of the books from his inventory.

“Yup.” Lina shrugged.

“Amlie won’t let me in to read, so, have to read out here.” Rakkan explained as he lifted up the book to read it using the light of the campfire.

“I see.” Lina pulled her lips to the side, glancing around awkwardly. It was quiet for a moment until Rakkan lowered the book to look at her.

“Sorry about what I did, you know, in the hideout.”

“It’s ok. I heard from Amlie, so I can understand it a bit I guess.” Lina shrugged.

“So, we're cool?” Rakkan asked as he held out his hand for Lina to shake.

“Yup.” Lina smiled and shook his hand.

“Cool.” Rakkan smiled back. “So what level did you get before you rerolled? I mean I heard you rerolled, but you move crazy good for a thief.” Rakkan asked her excitedly.

“I was in the 90’s.” Lina replied as she took a seat across from him.

“That explains why you’re so good at fighting me, even though my class is supposed to beat yours.” Rakkan thought out loud.

“I fought plenty of battlemasters. Don’t worry, once you get the intermediate class, I won’t stand a chance in an all out one on one.” Lina reassured him.

“Yeah…” Rakkan replied with less enthusiasm. “I’m not sure about that intermediate quest.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Well.” He paused to stare at the campfire for a moment. “When I was playing sage, I knew so much about the game, the magic, the class, I aced the quest. But using all these weapons? Tch.” Rakkan shrugged.

“Why didn’t you play a Sage again? You still really like the game lore, right?” She motioned to the book in his hand.

“Because it’s like you said. The only way I’m going to beat him is with his own class.” Rakkan gritted his teeth angrily as Lina saw an expression not unlike what she’d seen on Aegis when he talked about Makaroth.

“Jeez. Both of you.” She rolled her eyes as she moved to stand beside the campfire. “C’mere. Don’t take your weapons out, that just makes the skills take over.” Lina motioned him to follow.

“Huh?” Rakkan looked confused.

“I’ll give you some tips for your intermediate weapon quests. You’ll want to do them before you go for your class quest.” Lina explained. “I’m only good with daggers though.” She added.

“O-okay!” Rakkan replied with childlike excitement as he followed Lina, and she began showing him simple stances and hand movements.

Eli and his mom Jillian took turns with their tasks. While Jillain showered, Eli cooked food and ate. And once she’d finished and came to eat, Eli showered. They both moved through the house with an excited rush, smiling as they moved past each other.

It wasn’t until Eli came out of the shower and got dressed that his mom stopped him as he passed by the kitchen.

“Is it fun playing with your mom? How do you like those Cinderbolts?” She grinned proudly.

“Not bad.” Eli tried to play it down.

“I miss having summer breaks.” She sighed as she glanced at the calendar on the wall. “I’ve only got ten days left until my paid vacation time is over.” She contemplated. “I don’t suppose your stream is blowing up yet, is it?” She mocked him.

“No… not at all, we’ve been averaging three viewers. Which, in a way, is kind of lucky, otherwise someone might have come to steal our iron farm spot…” Eli replied as he watched her smile fade. “You weren’t joking when you said you really liked games, huh?”

“Yup. But sadly, I also like being responsible.” She sighed, to which Aegis gave her a look. “Most of the time.” She corrected herself.

“Hmm…” Eli paused to think for a moment. “Couldn’t you take a bit longer off?” Eli asked hopefully.

“The issue isn’t my boss, it’s the money. He’d let me take time off in a heartbeat for all the overtime I’ve put in over the years, but bills need to be paid.” She shrugged.

“What if I paid them? With the Iron I bet if I craft good stuff, we could sell it for a lot of money.” Eli suggested with determination burning in his eyes.

“Eli, c’mon, no.” She waved it off. “We all farmed that stuff together for fun, to have fun in the game.” She said dismissively.

“But you helped, and don’t you think we’d all have more fun if you could keep playing with us?” Eli replied, and he could see his words reaching her as she looked at him with consideration.

“I don’t know… do you even know how much our bills are? I don’t think you’re going to be able to pay them with just some in-game Iron.”

“Do you know how much Iron stuff is worth?” Eli asked her, unsure himself.

“Well… no, not really, but when I was younger there were plenty of games to make money on by selling things in them, and the exchange rate was usually pretty awful. Mostly ‘cause of bots though… I guess there aren't any bots in VRMMORPGs… y'know, except the NPCs.” She trailed off in her own thoughts.

“Then let’s try it! My crafting’s getting pretty good, did you see that bridge?” Eli bragged.

“Yeah, yeah, we all saw your bridge.” She rolled her eyes. “I can’t take more time off in the hopes that we’ll MAYBE get the money though, it’s too risky.” Jillian replied as she took a fork full of mac’n’cheese and stuffed it into her mouth.

“It’s still only Thursday though. Ten days is like six weeks in-game. If I can make enough money by then, you’ll take time off?” Eli asked hopefully. Jillian eyed him carefully for a moment as she finished chewing her food, and a big smile grew on her face.

“You like playing with your mommy, you like playing with your mommy,” She started chanting in a tune a few times.

“C’mon.” Aegis rolled his eyes at her.

“Okay okay, sure, let’s try it. Let’s cook some iron.” She said before wolfing down the rest of the food and standing up from the table. As she walked past Eli in the doorway of the kitchen, he turned to follow behind her as she headed back to the Simbox’s in the living room, but she stopped him.

“Ah-, you clean the dishes.” Eli let out a huff before running back to set the dishes in the dishwasher, and by the time he’d gotten back he saw Jillian already laying down in her Simbox, logged into the game. Eli somehow wasn’t feeling sleepy anymore, but he felt himself missing something before going back into the Simbox. Pausing, he looked in the direction of the staircase leading to his room where his workout equipment was.

“Ah, stupid Derrick.” He complained as he rushed up the stairs to get a quick workout in before returning to his Simbox.

In the small amount of time they had spent in the real world, the in-game world had transitioned from night-time to early morning. The campfire was extinguished and Aegis could see Tinsel already awake and tending to the field next to her house. She’d already cleared out the wild grass and plowed the land, planted seeds, and had a few sprouts growing. In the training ground Aegis looked to see Farlion up in light clothing swinging a wooden sword against Rakkan, who weirdly wasn’t wielding any weapon at all and just miming the movements. Farlion was now level 20, and as Aegis watched he spotted Luca running up the road from the river with a bucket of water he’d fetched for his Mom, though he was spilling a good amount of it on his way back to the house. It was peaceful and quiet, with a light morning breeze brushing through the tall untamed grass around Aegis carrying the scent of nature that filled his nostrils. It was always such a relaxing jolt to go from the real world to being in the wild game world and he took a few seconds to embrace it.

“Okay Mr.” Pyri snapped him out of it with a clap of her hands. He turned to see her approaching him down the road from her empty stables, her Cinderbolt floating above and behind her right shoulder as if it were some kind of pet. “Where do we start?”

“To make an Iron forge that can forge Iron, I first need to forge iron.” Aegis replied.

“Huh what and who now? English.” She looked at him confused.

“I have to visit Orm to smelt some Iron before I can build the forge.” Aegis spoke more clearly.

“Okay. I’ll have a nap and maybe read some more, you go do the busywork.” Pyri shrugged and waved him off before heading towards Amlie’s house with a big yawn.

Not wanting to waste time, Aegis ran at full speed back to Orm along the road under the morning sun, using his cooked meals to keep his stamina up. He managed to reach Orm before the afternoon hit and made his way through the streets towards the craftsman guild hall where the smelting furnaces sat unoccupied, all three of them ready to be used. He’d remembered his previous conversation with Ruffily about hogging them all, but he couldn’t help himself given the vacancy, and he immediately got to work, filling up the smelting pots with ore for each furnace and melting them down.

He’d gotten away with hogging all three for about an hour before a level 8 player showed up and asked to use one. He obliged but regretted it when the player saw that Aegis was smelting Iron, and he wouldn’t stop asking him for hints on where he’d found it. Once the player had finished with his copper he opted to sit back and watch Aegis work while another level 10 player took over the third furnace, and the process repeated.

Aegis wasn’t sure how many iron bars he'd need to make the forge but he didn’t want to run out, so he ended up spending the entire rest of the day working on them, occasionally being forced down to only one furnace by other players looking to get some work done. By the end, he’d garnered an audience of 6 curious players, some of whom offered him small amounts of gold for the location of the source of his iron he’d found, and Aegis was reminded why he wanted his own forge in the first place. In addition to the forges not being high quality and rather slow to work with on iron, the public aspect of it made it too hectic.

He didn’t put a dent in his ore supply but he managed to smelt 100 bars before it got to be too much and he headed out of the craftsman guild hall. The other players still followed along behind Aegis until Sapphire spotted the scene and shooed them away.

“No means no, stop harassing other players.” She shouted at them with her hands on her waist, which finally dispersed them.

“Thanks.” Aegis replied, to which she returned a stare.

“Y’know, those guys are right to be curious. That was a lot of iron.” Sapphire spoke with an intrigued tone.

“Not you too.” Aegis groaned.

“Fine, fine.” She sighed. “Just sayin’, Night Hunter’s would pay a lot for information like a good iron mine.” She shrugged as she walked off, but Aegis knew better than to give up their golden goose of a dungeon. His next stop was the town square, arriving just as the sun was settling in for the night. As he headed through the streets of Orm he was sure to double check his friends list to confirm that Ruffily was online. When he reached the town square he was happy to see her shop in the exact same place it’d been on Aegis’ first day in the game world and he got hit with a momentary wave of nostalgia.

The last time he’d seen Ruffily he was just a level 1 classless noob. Now he stood before her as a level 30 priest with maxed out mining, and she had in that time only risen to level 24. Her copper equipment that she had on display to sell had clearly improved in quality as Aegis approached and eyed her wares, many green quality weapons and shields were hanging from the shelves of the kiosk, but to Aegis’ surprise she had the same prices on her items.

“Hey! Woof! I recognize that name! You’re on my friends list.” She smiled as her tail began to wag behind her. “How was your time in Kordas, any luck using the public furnace?” She asked excitedly.

“I’m surprised you remember that.” Aegis smiled back.

“I remember lots of things. You look like you could use some gear upgrades… no iron stuff yet, huh.” She said sympathetically as she eyed his equipment up and down. “I got a few things here that’d be an upgrade for you I bet! Woof!” She exclaimed.

“Actually, I’m here for something else.” Aegis said as he pulled out an iron bar from his inventory and put it on her counter, watching her eyes widen. “How much do you know about building a forge out of Iron that can smelt a lot of ore, really fast.” Her eyes practically exploded with fire as he asked this, her tail began wagging violently against her will.

“A lot, woof woof! Practically everything, I’ve been planning how to build one for a long time now. I just need my own land, woof!” She grinned ear to ear. “Why are you asking me? Woof!”

“I’d like to make a deal with you.” Aegis began, and before he’d said anything else he saw Ruffily gently nodding yes, as if she knew what he was going to say. “I’ve got some land, and I’m planning to build a forge.”

“Uh huh?!” She nodded excitedly.

“I’ve got the materials, I think…”

“You’ll need at least 50 of those for a good one.” She replied hastily, eyes still burning with excitement.

“I’ve got more than that… the land is a bit far from here, but, if you are willing to help me build it, I can build you a house there too so you can use it as m-”

“When do we start?! Grrwoof!” She let out a small growl this time and Aegis could swear he heard a slight panting sound coming from her mouth.

“As soon as you ca-” Aegis couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Woof!” She barked as she waved her hands around rapidly at all of the items she had on display, causing them to disintegrate and vanish into her inventory one by one rapidly. “I’ll go get my cart and horse and load up my things from the storehouse, be right back, woof!” She said, and a second later she was skipping away from the kiosk. Aegis watched her run down the road away from the town square towards the Orm Stables, and for a moment swore she dropped on all fours to sprint before he lost sight of her in the crowds.

“I probably should’ve mentioned the hostile land thing… Oh well.” Aegis shrugged to himself.

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